A problem that has existed in medical clinics, laboratories, hospitals, doctors offices, and the like for some years is that of safely disposing of medical needle assemblies, such as hypodermic needles and VACUTAINER needles. In this respect, most such medical needle assemblies are currently disposable, however, it is not advisable, and in some cases prohibited by regulation, for these items to be disposed of in normal disposal units. The reason for this is that medical needles could inadvertently be touched by medical and/or non-medical personnel or someone trying to retrieve items from a trash can, and thereby penetrate skin, possibly transmitting deadly diseases. It is also possible that such disposal units could be inadvertently tipped-over so that the medical needles therein could be strewn about, again, inadvertently penetrating skin. In the not to distant past, it was thought that adequate protection was provided by returning medical needles to cover sheaths, which are normally on the needles when they are originally sold, before they are discarded. However, a difficulty is encountered in placing these cover sheaths back on the needles once the needles have been used because in that an operator, who must hold a cover sheath in one hand and a needle in the other, can easily make a mistake, missing the sheath with the needle, and sticking himself or herself therewith instead. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a medical needle removing and disposing system which does not involve inserting a medical needle into a hand-held cover sheath.
A number of medical needle removing and disposing systems have been suggested comprising boxes having keyhole shaped openings therein. Injection and/or blood drawing equipment, such as syringes, having needle assemblies mounted thereon are each manipulated by one hand to insert the needle assemblies through large portions of the keyhole shaped openings and to slide noses of the injection and/or blood drawing equipment into narrower slots of the keyhole shaped openings so that the needle assemblies are on the inside of the boxes and most of the injection and/or blood drawing equipment is on the outside of the boxes. The injection and/or blood drawing equipment is then pulled away from the boxes and the edges of the slots impinge on upper shoulders of mounting tubes of the needle assemblies so as to force them off of the noses of the injection and/or blood drawing equipment. The needle assemblies fall into the boxes and the injection and/or blood drawing equipment can be disposed of separately, or sterilized for reuse. A difficulty with such systems is that the boxes usually have removable tops, or covers, so that the needles thereof can be retrieved and reused by unauthorized personnel or can be inadvertently strewn about. Even for such systems that do not have openable covers, needles can shake out of the keyhole shaped openings. It is an object of this invention to provide a medical needle removing and disposing system which does not allow removal of needle assemblies therefrom once they have been properly disposed of and, even if the system is opened with force, does not allow the needle assemblies to be used again for injections.
A further difficulty with the box type disposal systems described above is that many needle assemblies are not mounted on injection and/or blood drawing equipment from which they can be slid off noses thereof. In this respect, many syringes have outer and inner mounting cylinders at the noses thereof, the outer mounting cylinders having internal threads thereon, and the inner mounting cylinders having smooth outer surfaces. Needle assemblies therefor have mounting tubes with outer disk-shaped flanges which screw onto the internal threads of the outer mounting cylinders while the inner mounting cylinders are inserted into the mounting tubes of the needle assemblies. For such injection and/or blood drawing equipment, keyhole shaped slots will not be adequate for removing needle assemblies from injection and/or blood drawing equipment with one hand because they do not allow one to unscrew needle assemblies from injection and/or blood drawing equipment. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a medical needle removing and disposing system which allows a user to unscrew a needle assembly from injection and/or blood drawing equipment with one hand at the same time he or she disposes of the needle assembly.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a medical needle removing and disposing system which will remove and dispose of not only hypodermic needle assemblies but which will also remove and dispose of VACUTAINER-type needle assemblies, having needles at opposite ends thereof.